Born in Ancona, Italy, Pietro Belluschi studied engineering at the University of Rome and at Cornell University. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1923, eventually joining the architecture firm of A. E. Doyle in Portland, Oregon as chief designer. By 1943 the firm was renamed for him. From 1951 to 1965, Belluschi was Dean of Architecture and Planning at MIT. During his tenure, he continued his architectural practice. He was also Consulting professor of Architecture, University of Oregon, at Eugene; and Thomas Jefferson professor of Architecture, University of Virginia, 1966. Belluschi was known for the elegance of his designs, regardless of scale. He participated in the design of over 1,000 buildings, including the Pan Am Building, New York; the Equitable Building, Portland; the Bank of America Center, San Francisco; the Juilliard School of Music and Alice Tully Hall, New York (with Eduardo Catalano); the Portland Art Museum; the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, California (with Pier Nervi); and MacGregor House dormitory at MIT (with TAC). His honors and awards include an appointment to the National Commission of Fine Arts in 1950; election to the American Academy of Arts in Sciences; Trustee of the American Federation of Arts; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects, 1972; and a National Medal of Arts, 1991. Pietro Belluschi died in Portland on February 14, 1994.

ABOUT THE BUILDING
One Boston Place was designed by Modernist architect Pietro Belluschi, former dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. In 2008, One Boston Place became the first building in the world to earn a Gold level of certification through the US Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED EB O&M) rating system.

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
The bat-winged Chevy in the old photo is on State Street, about to cros...

ABOUT THE BUILDING
One Boston Place was designed by Modernist architect Pietro Belluschi, former dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. In 2008, One Boston Place became the first building in the world to earn a Gold level of certification through the US Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED EB O&M) rating system.

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
The bat-winged Chevy in the old photo is on State Street, about to cross Washington Street downtown Boston. A corner of the Old State House is visible on the left.

We're looking at what may be the worst case in Boston of a humane and handsome building being replaced by a hiding monster. The monster, of which we see only the bottom floors in the middle of the new photo, is One Boston Place, a grim example of the Darth Vader school of architecture. It is probably out city's least congenial office tower. In the old building on the same site, windows seem to look out at us with raised eyebrows; in the new, we see only an anonymous black facade that resembles prison bars. And since there's no such street as Boston Place, the address - like the architecture - refers only to itself, not to anything around it.

The older structure is the Sears Building. Look closely and you'll notice that the top three floors are an addition. The original, built in 1869, was only four stories tall, plus a sloping mansard at the top. After a fire in 1890, the mansard was removed and the new top added by Cummings and Sears, architects who also may have designed the original and who are best known for their New Old South Church, in Copley Square. The building was named for a different Sears, a merchant who made his fortune in the East India shipping trade. Standing on one of the town's best business corners, the Sears was wrapped with marble in the latest architectural style: the ornate Italian Gothic of pointed arches and patterned stonework, a style being promoted at the time by the English critic John Ruskin. In its early years, the Sears was home to bankers and lawyers; after the fire, it became for a time Young's Hotel. It was demolished in 1967.

In the foreground of the old photo, land has been cleared for what became a plaza and office tower. Both were recently renovated by architects Elkus Manfredi, who created the feature we see here, called the State Street Steps. The cobble stone paves and the sheet of running water are reminders of an older, maritime Boston.